Burial-casket handle



(No Model.) 5

L. E. WOODARD. BURIAL GASKET HANDLE. I

v No. 535,551. Patented Man 12,1895.-

WITNESSES:

' ATTORNEYS.

ATENT (Di ties.

LYMAN E. \VOODARD, OF OWVOSSO, MICHIGAN.

u RlAL-CASKET HAN DLE.

, $PIEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 535,651, dated March 12, 1895.

Application filed December 19 189:4- Serial No. 532,337. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LYMAN E. WOODARD, of Owosso, in the county of shiawassee and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Connections for Burial-Casket Handles, of whichthe following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an improved means for producing hinged connections between the Walls of a burial casket and the drop handles therefor.

The objects of my invention are to provide novel hinge joints, which will be particularly I available for use in connection with wooden caskets, and with wooden escutcheons that are ornamental bases for the arms of the drop handles usually provided to carry the casket. The said joints are adapted torecei've the weight strain of the casket and its contents and transfer it to the clamped connectionsof the hinges with the walls of the casket, thus avoiding undue pressure on the escutcheons, and affording strong, reliable, direct connections for the handles with the casket.

To these ends my invention consists in the peculiar construction and combination of a parts, as is hereinafter described and indicated in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side view of a casket wall in part, and the handle bar and its arms, connected directly with the said Wall by the improved joints extended through a single elongated escutcheon. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view on the line 22 in Fig. 1,showing the improved joints that connect the handle arms directly with the casket Wall. Fig. 3 is a side view of a casket wall in part, the handle bar, its arms and two escutcheons which conceal the improved joints that eonnectthe handle arms with the casket wall. Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view substantially on the line 4-4: in Figs. 2 and 3, showing the improved hinge connection of one handle arm with the side wall of a casket and passing through an escutcheon on said Wall. Fig.5 is an enlarged reversed plan view of a handle arm in part and the connecting joint bolt pivoted thereto, and Fig. 6 is a side View of the detail of construction shown in Fig. 5.

. The wall 10, that represents the side of a casket, may be of metal or wood, as the features of improvement are designed for use in connection with burial caskets made of any suitable material.

If wood is used in the construction of the casket and is to be finished by polishing its outer surface so as to show the natural grain of the wood,a neatand appropriate wooden escutcheon is provided for each handle, to conceal thejoints of said handle with the side of the casket, it being premised that as is usual the handles are adapted for a join ted connection with the casket.

It is essential for the safe portage of a heavy corpse in a wooden casket, that the arms of the handle bars ordinarily provided for the carriage of such a casket, be directly connected with the side wall of the receptacle,

and avoid any forcible strain on the wooden escutcheons, as such a forcible contact if had will not be sustained by the escutcheons and possibly split one or more of them.

, The wooden escutcheons may be of any preferred design, and either a single escutchas shown in Fig. 1, or two smaller escutcheons .12 may be furnished fora handle, as is represented in Fig. 3.

The manufacture of burial caskets in factories especially adapted for the business, has largely superseded the production of such articles in small shops, as ordered; and undertakers as a class, purchase different styles of caskets either metal or wood, in a complete condition except possibly the lining and the handles, and more particularly the latter are left off of the receptacles, as these attachments vary largely in style and cost, and it is found more satisfactory to allow the purchaser to select them and the undertaker to put them upon the casket. t

. In order to permit the easy, quick and reliable attachment of the handles to a casket, without defacing it and with the least possible work,is a desideratum effected by the present invention, which will now be described.

The handle bar 13 may be of any preferred style, formed of wood or other available mal eon 11 for each handlelbar may be provided, I

terial, the bar shown being a popular artistic design that is very appropriate for use ona hard wood casket, having escutcheons of a like material, and the bar is provided with two arms 14:.

The handle arms 14 may vary in their ornamentation from the pattern shown, but it is necessary for their safe and effective service that they be produced from metal, preferably cast into form. The outer ends of the handle arms 14 are furnished, as usual, with integral clip bands 14: that are shaped in their apertures to fit on the handle bar, their bodies projecting an equal length from like sides of the bands.

The peculiar formation of the inner ends of the handle arms to adapt them for reception of and jointed connection with the improved hinge bolts 15, is a feature of the improvement. As indicated in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, the arms on the under side of their ends which are to be connected with the bolts, are each recessed in a like manner at two points near said extremities, producing two longitudinally extending and properly spaced cavities that have concave bottom walls.

The hinge bolts 15 each consist of a cylindric body having a concentric head 15, the periphery of which is circular and the opposite sides parallel, the end of the body farthest from the head 15 being threaded to receive a preferably flanged nut 16. On the head 15 and near its edge so as to be out of line with the bolt body, two similar limbs 15" are formed, and project at a right angle from the head. A suitable length is afforded the limbs 15", and on their ends farthest from the head 15 a peripherally curved boss 15 is formed, the edge of which represents about three-fourths of a circle, and as the diameter of the bosses exceeds the width of the limbs, it will be seen that a portion of each boss projects above the side of the limb nearest to the center of the bolt head 15, which parts of the bosses are designed to be introduced in the cavities formed for their reception in the under side of the handle arm as before explained. The bosses of thelimbs15 are centrally perforated, as are the walls of the cavities and also the hinge leaf 14), that is produced between the cavities in the end of each handle arm, and is rounded on its edge to adapt it for free movement between said limbs.

Each handle arm and its complementary joint bolt, are pivoted together by the insertion of a pintle bolt 17, in the aligned perforations of the walls of the cavity, the limbs 15 and the center leaf 14', which completes the novel hinge connection furnished for each handle arm.

At a proper distance apart two circular perforations 18, are formed in the elongated escutcheon 11 if such ornamental joint, coverings are used on the casket, or a. single central perforation is produced in each of the smaller escutcheons 12, if this style is pre ferred, and it should be stated that with either style of escuteheon a secure attachment is to be effected between them and the outer surface of the casket Wall whereon the escutcheons are placed.

The size of the perforations in the escutcheons should be so proportioned, that they will each neatly receive the head 15 of a joint bolt 15, and also permit the free insertion of the end portion of the handle arm 14:, that is pivoted to the limbs of the joint bolt. The upper and side surfaces of the inner end of each handle arm are spherically rounded, this segment of a sphere being merged in a collar formation 142 on the handle arm which projects at the sides and on top of the arm, the said collar serving so close the joint be tween the escutcheon and arm when the latter is raised to a horizontal position but does not forcibly impinge the bordering edge of the perforation 18, which will avoid injury to the escuteheons when weight is lifted by the handles.

When it is desired to connect a handle bar of any design, having the inner ends of its arms formed as has been described, with the side wall of a casket, through the perforations of a long escutcheon or a pair of smaller escutcheons, it is only necessary that the workman shall bore a hole in the casket wall concentric with each perforation 18 formed in the escutcheon or pair of escutcheons, the small holes in the casket Wall being of a diameter to neatly receive the cylindric bodies of the hinge bolts 15, which are inserted through the escutcheons and perforations of the casket Wall, until the bolt heads 15 bear on the outer surface of said wall, when a firm attachment can be effected for each hinge bolt with the casket, by screwing the nuts 16 on the inwardly projecting ends of the bolt bodies, as indicated in Fig. 1.

It will be seen that the hinged attachment for the handle bar that has been described, will prevent the handle arms from rocking upwardly farther than a level position, as is shown in Fig. 4, the transverse edges 14 of each arm at its end, that are produced by the longitudinal recesses formed for the reception of the bosses on the joint limbs 15, having contact with the upper surface of each of said limbs when the handle arms are elevated to a horizontal position. This contact of parts will prevent any forcible impinge of the collars 1 1 on the edges of the circular perforations in the escutcheons, the formation of the joints affording very strong hinges, that freely flex downwardly so that the handle bars will drop and their arms hang pendent when al* lowed to do so.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the casket is in a finished condition and may be quickly and conveniently provided with handle bars of any preferred design and finish, to suit the taste of the undertaker or his patrons, by the means that have been described, and that the direct connection of the handles to the side walls of a wooden or metal casket by the improved hinge bolts, willinsure safety, while the joints of the hinges are at all times concealed. As the spherical ends of the arms closely fit the circular holes in the eseutcheons at any point of rocking movementgiven to said arms, they produce a neat finish for the handle attachments.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In a casket handle or the like the combination of a bolt having one end screwthreaded and provided with a nut and havingv its other end provided with a head, spaced limbs projecting from the forward face of the head, and an arm pivoted between the said spaced limbs and having lateral projections adapted to engage the sides of said limbs when the arm is moved on its pivot, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a burial casket having perforations in its side wall, and circularly apertured escutcheons on said wall, of a handle bar, arms thereon, and joint bolts having disk-like heads, bearing on the exterior of the said wall after passing through ends of the handle arms, and thus adapted,

to hang pendent or be elevated to a horizontal position, substantially as described.

LYMAN E. WOODARD.

Witnesses:

D. O. OLAPP, t LOUIS FLICKINGER. 

